Abstract: Based on detailed investigation data of land use structure in 1996, taking 974 counties or county level cities in West China as examples, indicating method of synthetic value for land use structure was studied by using factor analysis and information entropy analysis. Factor analysis not only could be used to classify the types of land use structure, but also provided synthetic values on land use structure and information entropy. Factor analysis showed that factor 1 was closely related to the proportions of arable land, garden land, residential and factory mining land, and traffic used land; factor 2 was determined by the proportions of forestry and grassland; while factor 3 had close relations to the proportion of water area. Containing more information, factor 1 showed that proportions of arable land, garden, residential and factory mining land, and traffic used land were changing synchronously. However, the mentioned situation would be changed in future or in some local places at present. In other words, high proportions of garden land and construction land would reduce the proportion of arable land. After analyzing the relationship among synthetic value of factor analysis, land use degree and information entropy, division on land use structure and degree was made, which is helpful to analyze the problems in regional land use.

Key words: factor analysis, GIS, information entropy, land use structure, West China